Green group to court: West Bank barrier route would destroy ancient agricultural terraces, pools and small canals.

Placing the security barrier in the West Bank’s Nahal Refaim valley would
destroy an ancient agricultural system that includes terraces, pools and small
canals, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) told the High Court of Justice
on Thursday in a written response.

In a nod to a court request to
re-route the barrier, the IDF said that it would place a fence in the valley,
rather than a concrete wall, FoEME director Gidon Bromberg said.

His
organization, in its response to the court, rejected that plan. Through its
attorney Michael Sfard, it argued that the barrier – whether as a fence or a
wall – would irreparably harm some of the handmade terraces as well as the
site’s integrity and its ancient farming system and culture, by dividing the
agricultural land.

FoEME asked the court to stop the army from building a
barrier in the valley outside of Jerusalem where farming methods have not
changed for thousands of years. Jewish history also played out on the valley’s
slopes, where Shimon Bar-Kohava waging his final battle against the Romans,
Bromberg said.

The Nature and Parks Authority as well as the Palestinian
village of Battir, located in the valley, also object to the army’s
plan.

The Palestinian Authority has placed the site on its tentative list
of places that it wants to register on United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) World Heritage List.

To do so, it
must file the request by February 1 of 2014 in order for a separate decision-
making body, known as the World Heritage Committee, to debate the matter at its
annual meeting in 2015.

But the PA has already said that it may make use
of an emergency procedure, which could bring the site before the World Heritage
Committee for approval at its annual meeting this June.

A UNESCO
spokesman told The Jerusalem Post, that the World Heritage Committee had yet to
receive such an emergency request.

In its court response, FoEME said that
the court should take into consideration the fact that the site was likely to be
placed on the World Heritage List.

The IDF has said that the barrier is
needed to complete the security ring around Jerusalem to prevent suicide bombing
attacks. It is also concerned about the safety of a nineteenth-century rail line
that goes through the valley and is still operational.

In its court
response, FoEME said it believed that the line would be stopped within the next
five years, because of the nation’s new rail system.

It noted that
protection of the rail system was the real reason that the IDF wanted to build a
security barrier in the valley.

Bromberg added that he believed an
alternative could be found to protect the area while at the same time preserving
an important heritage site.